My Guest at the State of the Union

But more is on the line. We are fighting for the soul of this country, founded and strengthened by immigrants throughout our history. As President Donald Trump gives his first State of the Union address, one immigrant from New Mexico will be a guest of Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich. New Mexico Teacher of the Year Ivonne Orozco-Acosta is courageous to take the spotlight, considering that she came to the United States illegally. Like others in this country without permanent legal status, the threat of deportation is real and growing stronger as programs that protect certain classes of immigrants expire.

Orozco-Acosta is one of an estimated 7,000 New Mexican Dreamers - named after the Dream Act that would have legalized their status - children of immigrants brought here as youngsters and who grew up to become Americans. Even though this is the only country many know, their future here is uncertain. After Dream Act legislation failed, President Barack Obama granted protected status to the young immigrants in 2012. It is that Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, that Trump discontinued last fall, putting the fate of some 700,000 or so young men and women in doubt. Their protections expire March 5.

One of those young people is Orozco-Acosta, whose work teaching Spanish at the Public Academy for Performing Arts in Albuquerque brought her accolades as the 2018 New Mexico Teacher of the Year. It is no exaggeration to state that as the immigration debate goes, so does her future. For that, we must watch what Trump decides to do. He is expected tonight to be a more conciliatory president, one reaching beyond his nativist base - we would welcome a president for all of the country, not just the minority who supported him last November. To that end, Trump already has proposed a path to citizenship for Dreamers like Orozco-Acosta, who came to this country at age 12 with her family from Chihuahua, Mexico.

The president is dangling the carrot of a broader compromise on immigration, one that safeguards Dreamers but also puts aside $25 billion for border security and the border wall that came to symbolize the Trump campaign. It has one big concession, possible citizenship for 1.8 million young people, not just those covered by DACA. (We agree with legislators who are pushing against the broader compromise right now; fix DACA and, if necessary, give Trump money for border security. Don't tackle the entire system while so many thousands are in limbo.)

Look at the bigger picture. More troublesome than a wall or security are Trump's goals for the future of immigration. He and his advisers, Stephen Miller and Chief of Staff John Kelly, apparently want nothing less than a reworking of the entire immigration system, one that reduces immigration numbers and makes it harder for families to reunifiy.

They have taken the ugly phrase, "chain migration" to describe family members seeking to bring over relatives in that time-honored American tradition of a son seeking his fortune in the New World and then sending back to the old country for his mother, sister or younger brothers. Family reunification is not a threat to the security of the United States. Neither is the visa lottery that allows a more diverse group of foreigners to come here. Additionally, Trump also must placate his far-right base, including GOP House members who could scuttle any immigration legislation. He has, after all, riled up the beast.

As a result, the nature of the United States as a free, open society, where diversity is respected and welcomed, is changing for the worse. We are becoming a place where federal agents ask passengers on a Greyhound bus in Florida for identification proving citizenship. In Arizona, anti-immigrant activists screamed at dark-skinned lawmakers, staffers and even children, to "get out of the country." Ignorant of the irony, the protesters even asked a Navajo lawmaker whether he was in the U.S. illegally. How low can this debate go? Let's not find out.

The United States is better than this - or at least we have been in the past. We must be again. Watching the State of the Union tonight, be inspired by the sight of young people such as Ivonne Orozco-Acosta. She gives us reason to hope, something in short supply these days.